Industrial psychologist and sales researcher Neil Rackham reports in a study of over 1000 sales calls that sales results deteriorated after traditional sales training programs were implemented. Why?
Sales methods presented were often not industry-specific. Consequently, salespeople selling products like computer networks were using techniques appropriate only to industries such as insurance and financial services.
Likewise, it was found that many sales training programs utilized outdated techniques, like classical closing and appointment-setting methods popular in the 70's and 80's. Moreover, few programs included follow up mechanisms that resulted in permanent changes in sales behavior.
Although many programs fail to produce measurable sales results, industry and customer-specific programs have produced some impressive results. The key message in these studies is that if sales training is to produce a measurable increase in sales production, careful planning and customization of sales course materials are an absolute necessity.
Craig Arnoff is President of The Sales Alliance Inc., a San Diego-based firm that boosts client revenues through innovative Sales and Telephone Selling Programs (www.sales-alliance.com
To learn more about this author, visit Craig Arnoff's Website.
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Craig Arnoff
(Visit Craig's Website)
Craig Arnoff holds Bachelor and Master's
degrees in Marketing, Finance and Business
Management. He is the author of
Cooperative Selling™ and Cooperative
Telephone Selling™, and has conducted
workshops for over 10,000 sales and
telesales professionals in the technology
and services industries. The firm, which
has been in business for 16 years,
specializes in helping clients boost sales
results via sales training, sales
management, coaching and consulting
programs.
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